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#277 - Year = Year + 1

This Column is going to be written over the course of a few days. There's too much going on for me write now. I'm at the Hill house. Avatar is playing on the TV. I forgot that Avatar is actually pretty good. I've been learning how to play 7 Wonders. It's one of the many board games I learned how to play over my holiday vacation (see more about that in the Top 5).

Notice I said "my holiday vacation"? That's because my new job actually gives people a vacation at the end of the year rather than saying "you want time to see your family? Use your vacation days, darnit!" I make it a policy not to write about my job on here (for several reasons), but I really like it, so sometimes it's hard not to gush.

The title of this post is a programming joke. I wish it were "Year++", but sadly I've been stuck writing code in Visual Basic for Applications. It's a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad language. What's cool is that I'm actually experienced enough in writing code to have an opinion about coding languages.

Okay - here's the bulk about what I wanted to write about:

It's 2016!

That change doesn't really mean much. It means people look back at their lives over the past year and think about how they want to improve over the next year. It's cliched, but it's what you do. I did that, and this is what I've decided to do.

No more 30 Day Challenges. They were my New Year's Resolution two years ago. I was very good about doing them in 2014. In 2015, I failed more often than not. So, rather than doing 1 challenge a month for a year, in 2016 I am going to be doing 12 challenges the whole year. Specifically, I aim to accomplish these twelve things by year's end:

Weigh 240 lbs

Bench 240 lbs

Squat 315 lbs

Deadlift 345 lbs

Incorporate 3 mile runs into my regular workout routine

Improve my average macro ratio over previous years

Average an 80% success rate for Life Tracking

Slowly build savings by spending less

Travel out of the contiguous 48 states

Read 12 books

Trend towards a phone screen-on-time of 1 hour per day

No booze*. No soda. No energy drinks.

*okay, booze once a month

Take a look at what I've done over the past 24 months:

Establish great workflow at my new job

Good.

No screens after 10PM

Poor after 5 days

Sweat 5 Days a Week

Pore.

Study Every Day

Fair - good then bad

Healthy Life (Sleep, Eat, Run, Stretch)

Poor - overambitious

Life Tracker Rewrite

Great

Don't Eat Out (Unless with Friends)

Fair - good then bad

No Phone During Conversations

Fair - good then bad

Work Out Before Work Routine

Fair - good then bad

Moving to Avignon

Great

No TV, No Videogames*

Fair - good then bad

Faileo

None - just forgot

Work Workflow Redux

Good

Budgeted Life

Good - but felt like I cheated

The Incredible Bulk

Good

Yes Man

Great - but wasn't much different

No Reddit or Other Social Sites

Good - but didn't like it.

Drop Windows, Adopt Linux, Duolingo

Good

GoPro Every Day

Good

Enjoy Your Wedding & Honeymoon

Great

Run 50 Miles

Poor - back problems

Write Every Day

Good

Read 5 Books

Fair - reading is hard.

Paleo + Crossfit

Great

That's a copy/paste from the Life Tracker - which is still awesome, by the way. The top of the table was December 2015 - the bottom, January 2014. Next year all of my months will have all 12 of my new goals to work toward.

Now, for the picture(s) to go out on - a smattering of things from my recent photos list!

This is the stack of boardgames we played over the holiday. It does not include Ticket to Ride: Europe, Qwirkle, and the regular playing cards.

This is 4/6ths of the best darn bar trivia team ever to live. We are unbeatable*.

*note we got 2nd place.

On the right: 10 minutes of crafting. On the left: 10 hours of crafting. Both of which were awesome gifts from Melissa.

Krista, meanwhile, gave us this GoPro drone. It's registered with the FAA in accordance with new laws.

Motto: What a Marvelous Accomplishment Preface:Before I get started I'd like to let you know that I'm writing this in a coffee shop. The following video reflects my current situation:

Okay, now that's done. Either strap yourselves in or bail out now. This column is going to be spectacularly nerdy and long. I'm writing exclusively about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Please note that while this is notthe first time I've written about this subject, today's post will be more specifically focused on the MCU. A Brief History of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: The MCU is a series of movies (and a television show) produced by Marvel and distributed by Paramount that exist in the same shared universe, each telling their own story while contributing to a greater, overarching narrative. Specifically, this:

Those are all the current and confirmed future MCU movies. I didn't include the television show "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." in that graphic bec…